“Yes,” I said.
“So, what do we do now?”
“You’re talking, I’m listening.”
“What if we give you double the initial amount of the loan and call it even.”
“If I didn’t have a guy being patched together by a physicker, I’d probably go for that.”
“And I pay for the physicker.”
I mulled it over. Evidently, he was serious about wanting to avoid violence. Well, the fact is, I’d like to avoid violence as well. I’m here to make money, not mayhem. But it annoyed me to have a punk like Byrna pull something like this. It annoyed me a lot.
“Boss?”
“Yeah?”
“It’s business.”
“Yeah.”
I said, “All right, I accept the deal. But the money comes through you. I don’t want to see Byrna. I don’t trust myself.”
He nodded. “I’ll have the money sent to you. And if you give me the name of the physicker, I’ll take care of that, too.”
I felt obscurely disappointed, but agreed.
“Good then,” he said. “One more thing.”
“What’s that?”
“You hungry?”
Interesting indeed. What might this be about? Probably nothing it would be smart to get involved in. “Just ate,” I told him.
“All right.”
But then, we Easterners are curious beasts. “I could stand a drink, though.”
“On me.”
I stood up and preceded him out the door. He wasn’t a Jhereg, so he might not have appreciated the courtesy.
“Boss? What’s this about?”
“No idea. Maybe he wants to show how friendly he can be to Easterners.”
“You think?”
“Probably not. But I suspect if we take him up on the drink we’ll find out.”
We went back into the room, and I could feel the Dzurlord, Ibronka, looking us over carefully. Then she stood up and walked toward Lord Fox. Sticks, who’d been leaning against the bar, walked over to greet me, just coincidentally putting himself between me and Ibronka.
Foxy said, “Lord Taltos, this is Ibronka. Ibronka, Lord Taltos.”
I bowed without undue exaggeration and said, “This is Stadol, and this is Shoen. Let’s find a table.”
We did, except for Shoen and Sticks, who each took a table flanking ours. The guy with the funny name ordered us two bottles of Khaav’n; apparently he was settling in for a while. His hand was under the table; so was Ibronka’s. If we were going to be romantic, I wanted Cawti there. If we were going to be violent, I wanted Cawti there for that. I should have thought to invite her, dammit.
They brought the wine, already opened, and Blue poured it for us. We drank some. It was pretty decent, though I’d have served it slightly chilled.
I sat back and studied him some more, and waited. Loiosh shifted a little on my shoulder; he was waiting, too.
“So,” said the Blue Fox. “I’m glad we were able to settle things peacefully.”
“Uh huh.”
He hesitated, then said, “There’s a reason, of course.”
“I’m sure there is. Want to tell me about it?”
He nodded, hesitated, then said, “I could use your help.”
“I wondered about that,” I said. “The trouble is, you aren’t Sethra Lavode.”
Chapter 2
“No,” he said. “In fact I’m not. Um, would you mind explaining that remark?”
“She got away with that once—messing up one of my people as a means of hiring me. I don’t think—”
“Oh,” he said. “No, that isn’t what happened. I agreed to help Byrna, like I said, then I learned something about you, and it occurred to me that if we didn’t slaughter one another, we might be able to work together to our mutual advantage.”
“Do you believe him, Loiosh?”
“I think so. Maybe.”
I drank some wine to give myself time to think, and swallowed wrong and coughed noisily, which gave me lots of time to think but no ability to do so. Embarrassing, too. They pretended not to notice.
When I was recovered, I wiped my eyes and summoned what dignity I could and indicated that I was listening.
“You don’t know a lot about me,” he said.
No, but more than you think I do, I thought. And I’ll be learning more quickly. But I only nodded.
“I’ve been doing what I do for, well, since the end of the Interregnum.”
I nodded, waiting; I had no intention of giving him the satisfaction. But then he waited, and then he raised an eyebrow, so I sighed inwardly and said, “All right. What is it you do?”
“I rob people.”
“You rob people.”
“Yes. I hold my sword at their throats, and require them to give me their money. They oblige, and I send them on their way.”
“Is that honest?”
“No one’s ever asked me before. I’ll think about it and get back to you.”
“Thanks. So, how can an honest businessman like me be of service to a dangerous highwayman like yourself?”
“I was told you think you’re funny. That’s all right, I think I’m funny, too.”
“What else were you told?”
“That you have ways of learning things no one can understand, that you practice the Eastern sorcery—”
“Witchcraft.”
“Hmm?”
“We call it witchcraft.”
“Right. And you also dabble in the more traditional sorcery. And that you’ve gotten lucky often enough that it probably isn’t luck.”
I tried to think of who he might have spoken with who would have given him that sort of report, but it was a pointless exercise so I stopped. “All right,” I said. “What can someone with my skills do for someone in your profession?”
“You also have influence, and you know a lot of people.”
I didn’t say yes, or no, or nod, or shake my head. In fact, I had no idea what he was talking about, but if he was operating under some sort of illusion about me, it might work to my advantage.
He glanced at Ibronka, who was leaning back and studying me while, I’m sure, holding his hand under the table; they were probably also talking psychically. He said, “Things have been getting more difficult over the years.”
“In what way?” That seemed neutral enough.
“More and more use of sorcery to maintain the safety of the roads, and to learn the identity of those of us who violate it. People with large sums or valuable jewels teleport instead of traveling by road, or if they have to travel, they teleport most of the money, so all we can take is what they have to travel with.”
“Sorcery,” I said. “Bad stuff.” About which I knew fairly little. He was right earlier when he said I dabbled.
“Inconvenient, in any case. And it’s getting worse. Now it’s becoming difficult to find clients safely.”
I laughed. “Clients,” I said. “I like that. I like that a lot.”
He permitted himself a smirk. “Yeah, me, too.”
“I’m missing the part where I can be helpful.”